In winding operations wherein a yarn is to be caught on the empty bobbin tube of a winding spindle, and with the yarn speed and the surface speed of the empty tube being the same, special means must be provided on the empty tube so as to improve the catching effect and to obtain the required catching reliability, which catching reliability should be more than 99 percent to be acceptable in practical operations. For this purpose, it is suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,679 that the usual circumferential groove of the empty tube be additionally provided with a transfer groove. U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,519 suggests that a greater catching reliability can be accomplished by rotating the surface of the empty tube in a direction opposite the direction in which the yarn is being advanced. However, in the spinning of yarns formed of man-made filaments, it has been found that the catching reliability of these known methods drastically decreases when yarn speeds of higher than 4,000 meters per minute are employed, even with highly skilled operators. Thus these known methods are not technically reliable for winding yarns of man-made filaments at these high yarn speeds.